See also techgirl's Philly Report, but I thought I'd throw in a pseudo report of my own.

Friday - flying and meeting

Flew CVG-DTW-PHL on Friday afternoon. Upgrades: still batting a thousand here as silver. "Service" on CVG-DTW (ARJ) was a preflight orange juice only -- no inflight service at all. DTW on an old DC-9, beverage service only. DTW new terminal: got to experience all three stops and all three WCs briefly as they kept moving around the gate DTW-PHL was leaving from. Looks cool, tram was fun.

Met a great bunch of FTers. Met TravelWeary at the airport (we shared a cab into downtown after the shuttle took too long to get there in the cold). Called Markbach to say I'd be joining for dinner but a tad late, only to hit the wrong button to end our call and share a few add'l minutes of taxicab conversations with him. Unfortunately for Mark, no confessions on that trip.

Stayed at the Doubletree; nice room. Ran out immediately to grab a cab to meet up with the Brewpub crowd (See also Markbach's Philly Photos). Stayed until closing and headed back to the hotel.

Saturday - touring and cheesesteaks

Saturday, SFOJFK was kind enough to play tour guide to AnnaS, prncess674, newself and me, so I actually got to see something of the city! Photos will be forthcoming after obtaining the permission of the guilty.

I preferred Pat's to Geno's on the cheesesteak front. Hubby still says we shoulda gone to Jim's. Tastycakes are always good. Did the Irish Pub and Westin stops already mentioned, then headed back to the Doubletree.

Got my upgrade notification for PHL-DTW, but a notification that even the waitlist was full for upgrade DTW-CVG. Got paged and had to get online to do some work. Briefly thought of standing by for 9:15 a.m. flight to get a better shot at upgrading the whole way, but then ended up awake until 4 a.m. with the work thing so I'd have had to skip sleep entirely. Decided to stay and try to make the group breakfast.

Sunday - leaving, more flying and CONTRABAND

Sunday, AnnaS only got my voice mail to say to meet in 20 minutes; I was still in the shower. Had to forego the breakfast to figure out how to pack. Why is it my luggage shrinks whenever I'm on the road? Turned out I should've foregone sleep as I got a bit of mascara in my eye that somehow caused a mild infection on the inside of my lower eyelid (God's way of saying go for the upgrade at all costs?). The good news is, once I put in my contacts, the bumps on the eyelid aren't annoying to my eyeball, so after figuring that out and figuring out how to stuff my stuff in those two little bags, I'm out the door.

Sunday started some big flower show in PHL, so while I was waiting for the shuttle, a shuttle guy scheduled to pick up a couple of pilots asked them if he could take me as well. They agreed. THEN he asked me which airline (they were UA pilots!). They were kind enough not to change their minds and we had a nice chat on the way to the airport about flying and Philly. Also an interesting side note that they'd heard derogatory nicknames or plays on slogans for every airline but their own. I also hadn't heard any United digs to share. I promised to try United sometime, so if any of you have heard some, you'll have to let me know so I can share next time.

I was early at the airport and went in search of Tastykakes to go for hubby as I hadn't gotten any, but no luck. This involved going through security three times. First time I had all my junk and I carry every electronic gadget known to man, so they looked over my bag extra long in the x-ray machine. Didn't open it to look further, but decided to check my shoes for explosives. Floor was COLD! Dropped bags at the WC then ran to the food court between B&C (which involves going out of E and then in again at D because you can't go from sterile E to sterile anyplace else). No Tastykakes. Back to E and through security again (guess my shoes were ok this time - no check). Settled for Philly pretzels.

PHL to DTW was again on a DC-9 and went off a bit late. Landed in DTW a few minutes late, and had to wait on personnel to get us to the gate. THEN the jetway lost power 10" from the door. They FINALLY let us jump for it. DTW-CVG is scheduled at 5:10 and it is now right about 5:00. To make matters worse, I had to make a pit stop first. Got to the gate for the CVG flight as it ended up being pretty close. Bad news was, EVERYBODY ELSE WAS BOARDED. You know what that means...

Full Search Treatment

I got full wanding, shoe removal, and full bag search. It went VERY slowly. I only objected when the wander got careless and touched me with the wand. The only objection she had was to my Kensington Cable Lock for my laptop. This was news to me as a contraband item! I thought surely I was going to be forced to leave it at the gate despite its having made it through three previous flights. Luckily, she elected to give it to the flight attendant to have the pilot lock it up with them in the cockpit.

After I boarded (and I was definitely the last to board), there was much delay before leaving. We were told we'd have to get de-iced when we could finally leave the gate, but at some point the co-pilot walked through the cabin and looked out the windows. After this, the pilot announced that visual inspection showed all the snow had blown off, so no de-icing was necessary. Actually made it to CVG early. And, finally, have you ever noticed that coach in the ARJ is almost the same seat pitch and width as first in a DC-9? I think I'm in love with that little aircraft. I want an ARJ of my very own.

Home at last, pretzels were a big hit with hubby. And I sit here with my eyelid taped open so I don't have to put in my contacts and smile remembering all of the faces that I finally have to put with these names.

Thanks mucho to Markbach for arranging the gathering. And give my regards to the FAA for the full court press at DTW when I was so late for the flight (they shoulda left me behind by all rights). And Santa, all I want for xmas is my very own ARJ and either a pilot's license or a handsome pilot to fly it for me.

Edit 'cause I finally figured out the rolleyes thing

[This message has been edited by HollyHP (edited 03-04-2002).]